Baggy Blues Artosz won by 3 wickets

Artosz avoid upset in final over!

So it came down to Artosz needing 5 runs to win off the final over of the friendly-fire league match between Artosz and the BB Full Tossers. A wide, a single and a boundary saw them home and so the title contenders bagged the 4 points and breathed a collective sigh of relief.

As the Kangas and Tigers strolled off at the end of the day's earlier game, Chris won the toss and chose to bat but, characteristically, the FTs lost early wickets. By the 7th over, Sharath and Mark Bownas had restored some order and runs started to accumulate, with Artosz leaking plenty of extras.

Artosz bowled tightly enough, but the odd bad ball was punished and credit has to go to FT's vice-captain Sean Morrissey who went in at 80-odd for 6 and then frustrated the first-team bowlers for 22 vital and intelligent runs (not out). He, guest player Ranjit Kumar and Chris Priest then kept the scorers busy with the Tossers ending on a defendable 136 all out, the Artosz bowlers not being quite as incisive as usual.

Eddie Allnutt and Dominic Ward started well in reply, Dominic showing what he and a Mongoose can get up to, but soon enough the breakthroughs came. Catches were held and one or two straight balls were walloomphed at and missed.

Mark Bownas kept a tight line and Ram bowled with more accuracy than in previous weeks. No Artosz batsman, except Mike Glover, displaying some good wristy leg-side strokes, got a real start and at around 25 overs gone with Artosz still needing 25-odd to win the FTs perhaps saw a chance to win.

The larger-than-usual crowd braced itself for a nervy end-game but Tosser hopes evaporated with 2 balls to spare as Charles and guest Andy Grieve scraped out the required runs needed off Matyas Balogh's final over.

Any neutral observer wondering whether this game might be following a  suspiciously co-operative script were left in no doubt by the end, with many an anxious Artosz face on plain display in the stands and all 11 Tossers fielding in close to the bat.

Our thanks also go to Syed and Haroon for their excellent umpiring in a game which was then followed by a cheerful get-together at Legends to celebrate the Hungarian Senior Men's XI recent tournament victory in Macedonia. Of the winning XI in Skopje, six played in this BBA vs BBFT game.

Result: BB Full Tossers 136 a/o lost to BB Artosz 138 for 7 (29.4 overs)

Man of the Match: Sean Morrissey